Re: The other power transistor aiming to dominate the age of SiC

On Fri, 06 Sep 2024 10:13:44 GMT, Jan Panteltje <alien@comet.invalid>
wrote:

The Other Power Transistor Aiming to Dominate the Age of SiC
https://www.electronicdesign.com/technologies/power/article/55138019/qorvo-optimizing-high-density-power-with-sic-devices-and-advanced-circuit-design
 Explore the integration of silicon-carbide (SiC) technology and advanced circuit design to enhance the overall density and efficiency of power converters.
See also:
https://www.qorvo.com/products/power-solutions/sic-fets
>

I used a Cree SiC fet, in my Pockels Cell driver. As a high-voltage
switch, the figure of merit    Rdson * Cout   was many times better
than I could get with any silicon mosfets. The circuit wouldn't have
worked with silicon.

But driving the gate was a real nuisance. I went from -5 to +18 in a
couple of nanoseconds, which took a special GaN driver circuit on its
own baby board,

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/y3r0qyo0hkubpc9td02y1/T852C_globbed.JPG?rlkey=gbkhx5zwaisr7e84acf5kuv80&raw=1

The glob-top is mostly to protect the absurdly fragile EPC GaN fets,
and give them a bit of extra cooling. Finding the right glob stuff was
a project of its own.

There are beginning to be some specific SiC gate drivers, but the
market seems to be power conversion, so the drivers are fairly slow
and have gigantic prop delays.

I note that EPC said that they would never sell packaged parts, but
now they do.